Christmas Eve

I hope you all had a nice Christmas, we had a great Christmas this year. Robbie and I had several days off of work so the three of us were able to hang out a lot. We had a lot of fun. McKinley discovered the art of sleeping in and on Christmas morning didn't wake up until 8:00 am...Merry Christmas Mom!

On Christmas Eve we had dinner at my parents house and had a delicious spread of mexican food. We laughed all threw dinner and the little girls sat at their own little table that was fun, but proved to be a little too much freedom for McKinley...I'm not sure she ever ate anything! Here we are right after dinner, we don't often take pictures where all 3 of us are in it, so it's fun to take a few at a family gathering with a willing photographer (thanks Dad!):

Then we packed into the living room around my Mom's Nativity tree and read the story of Christ's birth from Luke in the Bible and opened just one present. Here we are in our pajamas (the customary Christmas Eve present):

Cali, McKinley and Abi modelws their pajamas for me while they sang and danced to Once There Was a Snowman.

Then the girls made Rice Crispy treat presents to leave out for Santa and had a great time. McKinley even decorated as she ate all the decorations this time:

We were very tired when we got home. McKinley fell asleep on the way home and Robbie and I finished wrapping presents. It's fun and different to be the parent on Christmas Eve...making sure everything is just right. We put together a table and chairs for McKinley and set out some more gifts. It was a fun evening. I'll post about Christmas day soon!

5 Things I Learned From André

1. Traffic School can be fun.
2. André (the teacher) wanted out early just as bad as we did.
3. One hour is totally worth the speeding ticket not hitting my car insurance.
4. André's time is worth more than mine; there must have been 25 people in class tonight all paying a $30 admission fee for one hour under his tutelage.
5. If you happen to be the driver of a hearse with a corpse in the back it is debatable whether or not that qualifies you for the carpool lane, so André suggests not trying it because you may get a ticket.

***ps, I'll post something about Christmas soon!

Baby Love

Oh how my baby loves HER baby! We bought her a baby doll a while back because she was totally loving on the dolls at daycare. I had no idea how much she could love a doll. She is so cute with it. She hugs her and kisses her. She carries her around the house and most of the time she takes her to bed. On the way home from daycare she'll say "where's Dad?" followed by "Where's baby?". It is really very sweet.

Well, the other morning she took it to a new level. She just HAD to have her baby with her and breakfast. And this is what baby got:

I guess baby was hungry too! And here was my favorite picture of the morning:

Thanksgiving with the Loomi!

This year we had Thanksgiving with Robbie's family. It was a lot of fun. His brothers and sister all came to town with their families. McKinley had a great time seeing her cousins again...it's been a long time.

The grandkids ran all over in Nana and Papa's basement and had a blast with sidewalk chalk. Nana also bought them gingerbread cookie kits to decorate. McKinley, having the sweet tooth she does, mostly ate the decorations instead of putting them on the cookie.

After discussing it, Robbie and I decided we would stay at his parent's house over the Thanksgiving weekend. The drive is only about an hour, but that two hours each day and that just isn't fun. John and Marla were gracious enough to let us invade their house and I have to say it was more than worth it. We stayed up late playing games and talking with all the siblings there, it was a lot of fun! The night before Mike, Monica and Rennick left town we met in Salt Lake and saw the lights. It wasn't too cold or too crowded, it was great and the lights looked beautiful as usual.

Thanksgiving

I love Thanksgiving because it gives me a reason to say out loud the things I've been grateful for all year and maybe haven't said enough about. I'm thankful for these two and the joy they bring to my life:

I'm thankful for the perspective I earn each day. I'm thankful for laughter and fun and corny jokes. I'm thankful for the gospel and how it effects my life. I'm thankful for heating pads and thermal pants. I'm thankful for all of my family and friends. I'm thankful for the knowledge I have that someone else has felt what I feel too and I'm never alone. I'm thankful for my job, my house, food and my slippers. I'm thankful for Robbie's obsession with always finding a great deal. I'm thankful for a lot things and I'm sure you are too.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

I'm So Glad It's Friday!

I’ve found myself laughing a lot this week. I just look back over the week and can’t believe how many silly/stupid/absent minded things I’ve done in 5 short days. I’m really glad the weekend is basically here. Here’s a little run down of my craziness:
Monday 1. We hired some people to sheet rock our basement and they totally broke our window! I didn’t really care though, they fixed it, but there were some really cold breezes blowing down there! 2: I never speed in construction areas (in fact, I have only ever had 2 speeding tickets and it’s been 8 years since my last one). Anyway, I was driving to work simply not paying much attention. I was going 35 in a 25 construction zone and got pulled over. It was going to be a $350 ticket, but the officer was nice and lowered it to 5 over in a non-construction zone, so it’s only $105. But seriously, not paying attention just cost me $105!
Tuesday Robbie and I were hanging the last of the insulation before the sheet rockers started hanging in the morning. I was using one of those staple things that you hit into the wall like a hammer. I totally hit my fingernail. It hurt SO bad. I can’t believe my aim was that far off and my finger still hurts!
Wednesday 1. I totally forgot to enroll in our health care benefits and this was the last day to enroll, but I didn’t remember until the enrollment window was closed. Kind of ironic, since this is what I do for a living for other companies. Lucky for me, last year’s elections rolled forward, so I’m only out the Flexible Spending Account elections. 2. McKinley was coughing really hard in the night, but then she just stopped so I figured she was ok….gross part continued to Thursday.
Thursday 1. apparently all of McKinley’s coughing had resulted in her vomiting. So when she woke up she had vomit all over in her hair and nearly dried into her sheets and blanket. But somehow she came walking out of room with a big “good morning” smile on her face! Gross to clean up though. 2. I just drove right past the turn on to 7200 s from Bangerter to take McKinley to daycare. I was busy thinking about New Zealand for some reason. 3. I had the worst soup EVER for lunch. So, I wandered to the vending machine to buy some Smartfood White Cheddar Popcorn (which I love) and it got stuck in the machine! I tried to shake the machine to get it out, but it was bolted to the wall. I did talk a friend into buying some and then both bags came out!
Friday This morning I drove past the turn from 7200 s onto 2700 w on the way to daycare. I was distracted by the radio talking about the new Twilight movie.

I’m so glad it’s Friday. Here’s hoping I pay attention to things better over the weekend and in the coming week!

My Little Girl is Getting so BIG!

I took McKinley in for her 18 month check up on Saturday. It was a little different this time than previous visits…she seemed to recognize where we were. She was happy in the waiting room, playing with toys, but as soon as we were called and taken back to our room she began to get a little nervous. I think she recognized that this was where she came to get shots. She was still good the whole visit, just very clingy, then the nurse came in to give her the shots. I will say that every other time the nurses have been so quick that McKinley didn't even know what was going on until it was over. This nurse was definitely not that good. She was really slow and kind of clumsy with the band aids and stuff. So, for the first time every McKinley just screamed and screamed; it was so sad. There wasn't anything I could do. As soon as the lady finally finished McKinley was pointing at the door and say "bye", "bye" over and over. I felt awful. She was so sad she even fell asleep on the way home. Anyway, other than that she is looking great, she is 32 inches tall which is the 75% and weighs 22 pounds which is the 25%.

Now onto the "Getting so BIG" part of the blog. McKinley loves to climb. She'll climb (or try to climb) absolutely anything. Well, a couple of weeks ago Robbie caught her scaling the inside of her crib. She was in her crib and started to climb out! She got up on top of the rail and just sort balanced there on her belly with half of her body hanging in the crib and the other half ready to fall out at any moment. I like to think that I'm a fairly laid back parent, I let her eat rocks, play in the dirt, chase bugs, scoot around on the floor in department stores and rub food in her hair when she's eating. But, I'm NOT that laid back if I think she could get really hurt. The particular part of the crib that is her favorite to climb would be the worst part she could fall out of, way too many things her poor little head could hit on the way down. So, after the climbing Robbie and I decided it was time to put the toddler rail on her crib. I've been pretty nervous about it, I've heard horror stories of children who never sleep again and throw fits and scream. I wanted to think MK would be different, she goes to bed very easily and doesn't often cry and try to come out once she's there, but you never know with kids.

Well, Saturday after her nap, I did it, I pulled off the front of her crib and put on the toddler rail. She immediately thought it was very cool to climb in and out and that she could through things in.

Saturday night came and we went through the regular routine…and she just went to bed. I heard her once in the night cry a little and was afraid I might see her walking in, but she stayed in bed. Sunday morning came and at her usual wake up time I heard the ruffle of a little kid in a diaper walking down the hall to our room. She was so happy and so was I, she stayed in her bed all night! I figured it was a fluke and that her nap on Sunday would be the real test. Sunday afternoon came, I took her upstairs and we went through the routine again…a couple of books, a short cuddle while we rocked and then in to bed. She looked up at me smiled, said "Nigh, Nigh", rolled over and went to sleep. I was so excited, but I'm tried not to get my hopes up just yet. Bedtime came Sunday night and she did NOT want to go. She only wanted her daddy (sometimes he caves on things I won't). So, Robbie took her to bed. There was a TON of crying, but he read her books, said prayers and put her to bed, this was right up there with the worst night she ever had going to bed, so I figured we were in for the long haul. I heard her get out of bed right after Robbie left and walk somewhere, then there was sobbing for about 5 minutes and then silence, she went to sleep. We checked on her later to make sure she was in bed, and there she was curled up with her blanket in her bed, sleeping.

I'm knocking on wood and crossing my fingers that it stays this easy, I can't believe my baby is in a toddler bed!

Halloween

Halloween was pretty fun at our house. McKinley was a tiger this year and we've been working on her growl for a while. She's probably the nicest tiger you'll ever meet, because her little growl comes out as a whispered "rar". It was really cute.

We went to pumpkin patch a while back and let her pick out her pumpkin, she loved the pumpkin patch.

Here she is telling me which pumpkins she wants:

Running through the little corn maze:

Driving a tractor:

Finally deciding on just one pumpkin:

All three of us really were there!

We carved pumpkins, but I let McKinley paint hers, so she could have full creative control.

Robbie's awesome pumpkin:

Did I forget to mention that after she picked out her pumpkin she wanted to eat every meal with it on her tray?

As far as actually Halloween festivities go, I took her to work on Friday for a little Halloween party and she had a good time. She figured out quickly that when people held out candy she could take a piece and put it in her pumpkin. On Halloween we trick or treated a few places, but due to a wicked little cold our tiger passed out early and was asleep before 7!

Happy Halloween!

Camping

This is a little late coming, but at the end of August we went camping and it was so much fun! The group included, Robbie, Me and McKinley, Jenni and Christian, Leslie and Matt and Jon and Ty. We only went overnight, but it was a blast. As it goes with camping we pretty much ate from the moment we arrived to the moment we left.
We camped at Ruth Lake, I love it there, it's so beautiful! McKinley had a fabulous first camping trip, her favorite thing to do was to throw rocks in the lake. By the time we left, that little kiddo had quite an arm.

We also hiked to a spot to rock climb and Jenni, Christian, Jon and Robbie were all great climbers. If I say so myself, Robbie looks pretty hot when he's climbing (we went climbing on our first "date" in Rexburg, maybe it just takes me back :) )!

I think my sister said it best....Ruth Lake = HAPPINESS!

Here is our tired camper at the end of the trip:

Here are our climbers (Robbie is in the yellow, lead climbing):

McKinley and I trying to eat lunch on a rock, we were not very successful!

Seriously, this kiddo LOVES her back pack!